About 150 kilometers away from Chhattisgarh's capital Raipur, news spread that a new SBI branch was opened in Shakti district's Chhapora village a few days back. Six people also received offer letters and their happiness knew no bound when they learnt that they would be working for the country's largest bank. The villagers also started reaching the branch with the hope of getting some loans.
However, looks like the only thing that was not authentic was the bank branch itself. From recruitment ads to placement letters and physical properties like computers, chairs, bank account opening forms to invertors, effort was made to make sure that the set-up looked as real as possible. Notices were also stuck on the walls of the branch asking customers to open accounts.
However, the scam came to light on 27th September and the bank authorities as well as police was shocked to learn about the details of the case.
This Is How The Fraud Was Detected
Ajay Kumar Agrawal, the complainant in the case, speaking to news channel NDTV said that an application was made for an SBI Kiosk in Chhapora whereas the nearest branch is located at Dabhara. When a request for an SBI Kiosk was received, the complainant who is a local, sensed that everything was not correct.
After Ajay informed the SBI officials at Dabhara, the nearest bank branch, authorities and police reached the branch and after talking to the six people employed at the branch, they realised that it was a day-light fraud that was taking place in the name of India's largest public sector bank.
Six People Received Appointment Letter
The six employees, talking to the channel, said that they were offered appointment letters after making application online and were called at the Chhapora village branch for completing formalities.
The branch manager of the fake branch is reportedly absconding and police is investigating the case. However, the incident has once again highlighted the need for customer education and awaresness in rural areas so that such frauds can be prevented.
Fortunately for customers, no accounts were opened so far as the bank branch had started operating recently. However, the miscreants had planned to get accounts opened and run away with the money, said police. Also, the village is the biggest village in the nearby area and is connected with main road which could be one of the reasons why the fraudsters chose the place, said police.
